Seedy S.K Njie, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and Spokesperson of the ruling National People’s Party (NPP), has accused the United Democratic Party (UDP) leader Ousainu Darboe of “antagonising” him and authorising his arrest in 2018 when he was the Vice President of The Gambia.
Njie, in a long written diatribe, said Darboe weaponised state institutions when he was foreign minister and vice president.
“To put it out there, I would have been one of Mr Darboe’s most celebrated men if I had accepted his invitation to join UDP. But after I declined his invitation, he settled on the only other choice: to antagonize me.
“In his statement, he wrote that “since the appointment of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly in 2022, the APRC politics of weaponisation of State institutions have made a comeback”.”
“This statement is false and unfortunate. It is fact Mr Darboe weaponised the institutions of state when he was foreign minister and vice president. He was the most powerful man in the Barrow government and presided over the worst clampdown on both perceived and real political opponents. I was in 2018 arrested and detained on the orders of Mr Darboe. It was his nephew, Muhammed Kanteh, who is a senior member of the UDP and National Assembly Member who arrested me.”
The Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly further accused the UDP leader of nepotism and tribalism during his time as vice president and foreign minister.
“Appointment to positions of authority or influence both local and foreign service by his recommendations were mainly based on political, friendship, family and or tribal inclination at the expense of competence and loyalty to state. No wonder, Gambians started enjoying the fruits of good governance and unprecedented development after you were yanked out of it. Denial of permits to legally registered political parties for meetings and rallies was the order of the day when Mr Darboe was in charge of government.
“It was during his time APRC supporters were tear-gassed and a siege was laid to their leader’s home in Tallinding. Their leaders and members were routinely arrested , detained and charged and all these became history after Mr Darboe ceased to be a member of the government. But also, do not forget his threat against Gambian teachers, members of the security forces with dismissals.”
Njie added: “I find it funny that Mr Darboe who championed the plan to ban APRC while he was in government in 2017, 2018 and 2019 is the one defending and fighting for a faction of the same APRC. It should be our collective responsibility to our constituents and country not to render it ungovernable.”